


Return (But it's not so simple)

by kitkat1003



Category: Eddsworld - All Media Types
Genre: Edwardo is here too, Jon as well, TORD YOU FUCKED UP, my two faves besides the original four, precious babies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-28 08:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6321907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkat1003/pseuds/kitkat1003
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>EDDSWORLD   I love this show so much and i just can't believe it's over and WE NEED MORE FANFICTION.<br/>Feels up ahead</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Start

When Tord is healed up and finally realizing how much of an asshole he's been, he walks quietly to the police and turns himself in. They let him off somewhat easy. Six months in prison.

That's fine, considering they don't know how much he's actually done.

He doesn't want to believe he turns himself in for some emotional reason, and simply tells himself that it's a way for him to get the bounty off of his head so he can actually walk places without fearing he might get shot. And, it might be a way to get sympathy points from Edd and Matt so he can get himself back into their lives.

He wants revenge of course.

~~_He doesn't._ ~~

* * *

He goes to Matt first.

There's an awkward silence in which Matt doesn't know how to react.

"You can hit my face, if you want," Tord says, and Matt does, _hard_ , and it hurts, but Tord doesn't say anything besides an apology. Matt's all vanity and pretending to be oblivious but Tord can see the calculating look of someone who is watching your every move to attempt to read you. Matt smiles but Tord knows his walls will be up higher than the eiffel tower for a long time.

He doesn't blame him. He never trusts anyone himself.

* * *

Edd is next, and getting him to even speak is a challenge all on his own. At first the door is slammed in his face, but he knocks enough times that Edd actually reacts.

"What do you want?" The words are spat at him, scathing and cold.

"I am an asshole. I'm sorry," Tord replies, and he hopes Edd can see the little bit of sincerity he's letting through.  
He's never been good at showing emotion at all really, so he can't be sure he's even doing it right.

Edd sighs.

"Tom's gonna be pissed, you know."

"Yeah~, probably."

There's a small smile on Edd's lips.

"There's an empty room across from mine. You can use it if you want," He says, and Tord nods his head in thanks. Edd slowly closes the door, and Tord moves on.

It's not perfect, but they're okay.

* * *

He goes to Edwardo next, because he can't work up the courage to see Tom. Since Tord had destroyed his house, Edd had given Edwardo a place to live in the little apartments Tom had bought when Tord had ~~_hurt him_~~ pushed him out of the house. When the man opens the door, he takes a second to look at Tord before throwing a punch at his face. Tord takes it.

"How dare you come here!" There's alcohol on his breath, and spits flies out of his mouth. He's shaking with rage, completely red in the face, and he's gripping the beer can in his hand so hard it's crushed. His hair flickers bright green for a moment. "You killed him, you sick fuck! You killed Jon!" And Tord finally knows the name of the man he murdered without a single thought.

Suddenly, there's a transparent blue hand on Edwardo's shoulder.

"Wanna watch the telly?" The small ghost of Jon asks, and Edwardo's face falls. He's still gripping the can, and the liquid is dripping off of his hand. "We can watch your favorite show," Jon continues, almost pleadingly, and it's the final thing that makes Edwardo's face relax to something somewhat calm. The man grumbles and stumbles back into the apartment, leaving the ghost and the demon alone. Jon stares at him for a moment, and Tord opens his mouth to apologize, but is cut off.

"I should be angry that you killed me," The young-how young was this boyish man?-voice of Jon begins, and Tord wants to run away, but finds his feet rooted to the floor. "I'm not though. Not really," Jon continues, and Tord can see the wound in Jon's ethereal form that caused his death. It looks like it's perpetually bleeding. "I'm angry because you hurt him. I'm angry because you broke a man and now a dead one has to take care of him," He finishes, and Tord can see the empty bottles of beer and the scribbled on papers that all say sorry and Jon on them.

It's a testament to how much Jon actually meant to Edwardo, and it's enough to make Tord turn away.

He does say sorry loud enough for the ghost to hear, and he hopes it means something.

* * *

When he knocks on Tom's door, he's prepared for anger, sadness, even shmirnoff being thrown at him. He isn't prepared for indifference.

"Come in," Tom says, and the bored tone of his voice makes Tord want to scream. He walks in, and the apartment seems nice. Familiar almost, to how the old house used to be.

"I-," He can't get the words out. They're stuck in his throat. He opens his mouth again, then closes it. Tom raises an eyebrow.

"It would've been easier if you had just killed me," He says, and Tord wants to strangle him, because _how in the hell would that have been easier_. As is, he clenches his fist and sighs.

"I'm sorry, Tom," He finally speaks the words, and doesn't look at Tom's expression.

"Hey, no worries. Here, take a seat."

There's a small box being thrown at him, and he looks up just in time to see it turn into a giant chair.

He laughs, but it's muffled by the fabric.

He imagines this is as close to forgiveness as he is going to get.

* * *

They go on their first adventure together since the incident without him.

That's fine.

~~_But it's not._ ~~


	2. Moving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More angst basically  
> Also there's a huge amount of info from the short Trick or Threat in this chapter so if you haven't watched it you should do that.

It's been a few months, and he's run out of food.

Meh.

Tord's never been one for self preservation. He doesn't care how well he is as long as he can shoot and as long as he's not dead. Most days now he spends his life staring up at the ceiling. He doesn't have much in his house anyway. He sold the seat and bought a fridge, a nightstand, and some food. He's out of money now too, and he can't find it in himself to get up and get a job. He likes listening to the others talk when they go on their adventures. He finds their banter amusing.

His hands twitch with the desire to shoot. He gets up and pulls out his pistol. It's an old revolver, perfect for russian roulette. He fills each chamber and shoots at the wall.

There's a banging on his door. He drags himself over and opens it.

Tom is yelling at him.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?!" There are bags underneath Tom's eyes, and his face looks like it's being pulled to the ground.

Tord would say something, but can't find it in himself to speak. He shrugs. Tom sighs, long-suffering, and turns away. "Just...keep quiet will ya?" He says, and Tord closes the door with no reply.

He's out of bullets anyway.

* * *

The next night, there's a crash from Edd's room, and Tord is running before he even realizes it. He opens the door without knocking.

It's pitch black, and completely silent. It's almost eerie. He hears steps behind him and jumps out of the way just as Edd charges in the spot he just was in.

It only takes him a moment to realize that this is in fact not Edd at all.

For one thing, Edd never is one for violence without reason, and if that hadn't tipped him off, the glowing red eyes that Edd had might have raised suspicion. He's running to Tom's room as fast as possible, knocking out Edd along the way, because out of all of them, Tom is the most intelligent, but when he gets there he hears a giggle that is nothing at all like Tom's laugh so he opens the door carefully and peers inside.

There's Matt, with the same eyes Edd had, and a small girl peering over Tom, who at the moment is growling while being trapped in a cage. For a moment, Tord wonders why she's trapping Tom specifically, but he ignores the thought.

All of the sudden, Edd's grabbing him and pushing him into the room. Matt gets up and grabs Tord as well, and now he's trapped. The little girl giggles again, and Tom's eyes are wide.

"Oh no," Tord mutters under his breath. The little girl comes to eye level with Tord, and he feels the pull of her magic as she tries to push her way in.

Memories of shooting Tom with a rocket and evil laughter and the elation of taking over the world comes to the forefront of his mind, and it's oh so painful to watch it happen all over again.

**_They took your victory from you._ **

There's a harpoon in the robot now. He's furious at Tom.

**_Why not get revenge?_ **

_Why not?_

_Where is he?_

_What is he doing?_

_Wait._

_Stop._

_NO._

The illusion shatters, and he yells in rage, words lost in anger as he headbutts the little girl in her stupid little grinning face. Matt and Edd's grip loosens in surprise, and he takes the opportunity to wrench his arms free and grab the girl by her shirt, punching her again, over and over and over and over-

Suddenly, he's being pulled away from an empty space because the girl is already gone and he's been punching the floor by Tom. Tord knows that he most likely has that crazed look in his eyes from the incident and that his hand is bleeding from the punches, but he simply works to let his breathing slow.

He looks up at Edd and Matt, and sees that Edds head is bleeding. Without thinking, he pulls out some gauze from his hoodie pocket and wraps it around the wound. Edd stills, but doesn't stop him. When Tord's done, he looks over Matt and Tom, and seeing that their fine, walks back to his room without a word.

He sleeps on the floor and pretends not to hear the whispers in the hall.

* * *

The next day, someone knocks on his door.

He doesn't care enough to answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought Tord as self destructive.  
> And I've always wanted Trick or Threat to take much darker tone, so boom.  
> DONE


	3. Backslide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poweredd!  
> WOOOW TORD REALLY?!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had entirely different chapter planned but it got deleted :C Anyway hope you enjoy this one!  
> Also more self destructive Tord. Not much, but still.

The knocks stop after a while, and Tord doesn't really care, because the sound does nothing to silence the pounding in his head the way the banter did, and the banter had surprisingly stopped. For a while, he wondered how things had gotten this way.

Maybe it was the group dynamic.

At the start, it had just been Edd and him. The two had gotten into huge arguments about the silliest things. It was amusing, at the time. Now it just felt stupid.

When had his memory aged this way?

When Matt and Tom had arrived, Edd's leadership properties and Matt's huge personality had pushed Tom and him to the sidelines. It's hard to give four big personalities each their own spotlight, and in the end, Tom and him were fighting over every scrap of attention they could get. It was pathetic, now that he thought about it. The others weren't even that great.

Matt always had seemed more reserved when he was around, yet when he left he was turned into some stupid comic relief. It was a wonder Edd and Tom stood up with him for so long.

Edd wasn't even that smart in general, and his leadership left much to be desired. Not to mention he was obsessed over Cola of all things.

Tom was most likely the most competent of the three, with his quick thinking and fighting nature, but his alcohol addiction made him sloppy and stupid. He was quick to temper and easy to manipulate.

Why did he care about them again?

_Because Edd used to create insane ways to get you to pretty beaches so you would get off your computer._   
_Because Matt smiled at your jokes and enjoyed your company._   
_Because Tom was fun to fight beside in the midst of chaos._

_Because **they** cared about **you.**_

A loud roar broke him out of his thoughts. He groaned, getting up slowly and making his way out of his room. When he did, he saw a huge dark colored monster, complete with purple horns and one giant black eye.

Wait, black eye?

"So that's where that formula went," Tord muttered under his breath. It was an easy fix. He had made the design with a failsafe of course, should it fall into the hands of someone other than himself. He wondered how Tom had gotten ahold of it.

"Tord! Do something!" He heard Edd scream from afar. Right. He ran at the monster-er...Tom, and moved towards its front. With quick precision, he poked it in it eye, forcing Tom to revert back to his regular form. Tom groaned, getting up a rubbing his head.

"What the hell-again?" Tord heard him mutter underneath his breath. It made Tord wince.

"Um, yeah," He said in reply. Edd and Matt ran over.

"Tord! You did it!" Matt smiled as he reached the two. Tord looked away.

"Ah,well I did make the formula for it. I might as well know how to stop it," He replied, and Tom grabbed him by his hoodie.

"You. Did. _What_." He growled, and Tord backtracked.

"I made the serum for it a long time ago. It was my original plan. Easier to pin the blame on a messed up experiment when it comes to taking over the world. Less messy than a giant robot, and besides," Tord didn't look up as he continued. "I figured you guys would be more forgiving, so I could turn you into my advisors," It wasn't a lie. He had thought about it, in fantasies where he ruled the world with the three of them by his side.

Not that it mattered anymore.

"I had put it in the freezer overnight to cool. You must have grabbed it instead of your vodka," He shrugged. "I can make an antidote. I just need to remember the formula for it," He said. Edd sighed.

"Alright, let's get Tord some paper. Tord, do you know what triggers the transformation?" Tord thought for a moment before replying.

"I had made the chemical to react to extreme physical pain, but I also made it to meld with my genome, so it might be different with Tom's," Tom blanched.

"The hell would you make it to react to _extreme physical pain_?!" Tom practically roared.

"I had meant to just shoot myself in the shoulder in order to get working," Tord replied. "It was a way to make it extremely difficult to trigger," They had made it inside Edd's apartment by then, and Tord grabbed some paper and a pencil and began working.

God his brain hurt. He felt lightheaded. Even when he sat down, the dizziness didn't stop. He focused on his work, but only managed to get a quarter of the math done before stopping. He looked back at the others, who were now watching television.

"I need to sleep. I'll finish the antidote tomorrow," He told them as he made his way out the door.

Tom stopped him.  
"You are finishing the damn antidote _now_ ," His tone left no room for argument, and Tord didn't have the energy to argue anyway. He made a step to move back to the table, when his legs fell out from under him.

The last thing he heard before consciousness left him was someone calling his name.


	4. Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Idk man about the antidote I just threw in some science shit so don't take literally and please don't eat batteries

Tord wakes up to yelling. He's laying on something soft.

It's the sofa.

"-the hell Tom! He said he was tired!"

"So?! I'm the one who could turn into a fucking monster at any moment, so excuse me if I'm finding it hard to feel sympathy!"

Tom and Edd fighting is a rare sight, considering Tom's often too drunk to care about arguing, and that Edd is usually agreeable when it comes to most things. It makes Tord almost sick at how much Edd has forgiven him already, even though he had done things many would call unforgivable. He moves to get up, and rather than break the fight, makes his way back to the table and begins working. The sooner he's done with the antidote, the sooner things can go back to whatever normalcy the four of them had in their lives.

Tom stomps out past him, then, seeing Tord at the table working, stops.

"You look like shit," He comments, and Tord snorts.

"So, you are saying I look like you?" He responds, and Tom glares Tord figures the conversation is over, but Tom had other plans, so when Tord looked back down at the paper, he found his view obstructed by a hand.

"What's wrong with you? You're never this quiet, with all your fake laughter and corny jokes," Tord pretends not to listen, trying and failing to move Tom's hand out of the way. "Hey, _sunshine lollipops_ ," Tom presses, and Tord snaps.

"Oh, _shut up_ ," He growls, and that gets Tom to take back his hand. Tord goes back to working, numbers and equations moving from his head onto papers with ease, but then the figures become fuzzy and he rubs his temples.

"Tord?"

Oh, god, now mother hen Edd is worried, and he's never gonna hear then end of it. He rests his head on the desk, and his stomach takes that moment to traitorously growl. Edd puts his hand on his shoulder awkwardly. "When's the last time you ate?" He asks, and Tord tries to formulate a lie, but the truth flies out of his mouth before he can stop it.

"Two weeks. Ran out of money to buy food," He says, and his mind is trying to take back the words, but Edd's eyes widen, and even Tom looks a little surprised.

"How are you functioning!" Matt calls from the other room, and Edd runs into the kitchen to grab him something. In around ten minutes, there's a steaming plate of bacon placed in front of him as his paper is taken away. For a moment, Tord contemplates making a joke about how Edd is feeding him bacon after all this time, he but instead just eats. A part of him wants to scoff it all down, but the few years he was gone helped him practice not eating for at least a month without showing any weakness. When he's finished, he mumbles a thanks and continues to work. Matt, Edd, and Tom all move to the couch to watch television, but Tord still feels eyes watching him from time to time.

"Finished!" He yells in triumph. He's up in a flash, looking through the kitchen for the ingredients. He could take lithium from batteries, and the rest were surprisingly easy to substitute with household spices. It was definitely a spicy concoction, and he could only imagine how Tom's face would look when the Brit drank it. Chuckling a bit at that, he started to mix the ingredients together. For a moment, he was afraid the lithium would kill Tom-not because he cared about the asshole, but because he would get in trouble if he killed Tom-but the numbers showed how the radiation would counteract the lithium and the two would cancel out.

"Alright, Tom, drink up," He offered the liqiud sludge to the man, and Tom eyed it warily.

"Is this safe?" He asked, and Tord grinned.

"Eh, probably. You might faint after drinking it, but that's because it's literally tearing radiation away from your cells," He replied, and Tom paled. He held the bottle with an almost shaking hand, before downing it in a single gulp. Just a few moments later, Tom's eyes roll to the back of his head and he falls forward. Tord catches him and has Edd and Matt move so Tom can lay on the couch.

"How long will he be out?" Matt asks.

"Probably a day or so," Tord says as he walks makes his way out of the apartment. "Goodbye," He waves behind him as the door closes shut.

He hears sobbing from Edwardo's room, and rushes back to his own.

When he does, he lays on the floor and tries to sleep everything away.


End file.
